About three-quarters of teens (76 percent) report seeing health-related content on social media in the last three months, including content focused on nutrition, dieting, muscle building, and performance enhancement. Black (83 percent) and Hispanic (83 percent) teens are more likely than White teens (73 percent) to report seeing health-related content. Female teens are more likely to report seeing dieting content than male teens (66 percent vs. 51 percent), whereas male teens are more likely to see content about performance supplements than female teens (53 percent vs. 45 percent).

Social media is not just exposing teens to health information—it is also influencing what they do. Nearly 6 in 10 teens (57 percent) report that something they saw on social media influenced a decision to change their eating habits, exercise routines, use of vitamins or supplements, use of performance-enhancing products, or even use of prescription medications or injections.

The pattern of reported changes in behavior mirrors the types of content teens are most likely to encounter online. The most common change involves exercise and physical activity, with about half of teens (48 percent) reporting that social media influenced their workout habits or activity levels. About one-third of teens (35 percent) say social media influenced the amount or types of food they eat, and a quarter (26 percent) report changes in their use of vitamins, supplements, or performance-enhancing products.

However, the influence of social media is not experienced equally across all groups. Hispanic teens (65 percent) are more likely than non-Hispanic White teens (54 percent) to report changing at least one health behavior based on social media content.

Notably, 14 percent of teens report that social media influenced decisions related to medications or injections. Teens whose parents have lower levels of formal education are more likely to say social media influenced their use of medications or injections (23 percent) than those whose parents have a bachelor’s degree or higher (10 percent). While they are less common than changes to diet or exercise, these changes may warrant more attention from parents, health care providers, educators, and researchers given their potential health consequences.

AI-powered tools are rapidly becoming part of teens’ health information environment alongside social media. Nearly half of teens (44 percent) report using AI tools such as chatbots to seek health information or advice in the past three months.

AI is most commonly used for exercise or physical activity information (33 percent) and diet or nutrition information (28 percent). Nearly a quarter of teens report using AI to find information about vitamins, supplements, or performance products (23 percent), and 17 percent report using AI for advice on prescription medications or injections.

AI use also varies by race and ethnicity. Non-Hispanic Black teens report the highest use of AI for any health topic (59 percent), followed by Hispanic teens (50 percent), Non-Hispanic White teens (38 percent) and non-Hispanic teens of other or multiple races (36 percent).

This study did not assess whether AI-generated information influenced subsequent health decisions, but the data suggest future research should examine the quality of the information the teens are using to make health-related decisions.

“Many young people have turned to social media and increasingly to AI tools for information about food, exercise, supplements, medications, and other health topics, but there is much more to learn about the quantity and quality of information they are ingesting,” said Sabrina Avripas, principal research director in NORC’s Public Health department. “Young people need trusted, accessible, and age-appropriate resources that help them distinguish credible information and make informed decisions about their health.”

These findings suggest that social media and AI are important sources of health information shaping teens’ behavior during a period when lifelong health behaviors are developing. Understanding how teens interpret online health information can help parents, educators, and health care providers support informed decisions and promote digital health literacy—the skills needed to find, evaluate, and act on health information online.

Forthcoming NORC research will examine whether teens verify information with trusted adults or health care providers, and how digital health information influences longer-term health behaviors and outcomes, and the extent to which exposure to online health content affects mental health, including anxiety, stress, body image, and overall well-being. Emerging methods, including social media data donation and digital trace data collection, may shed light on the specific content young people encounter and inform future interventions, education efforts, and platform policies. Future research could also leverage tools like NORC’s Trusted Health Information Assistant (THIA), a generative AI chatbot designed specifically for health communication research, which can be embedded in surveys, interviews, or experimental designs to test and compare how different types of health content influence teens’ understanding, trust, and changes in behavior.

NORC conducted a poll of U.S teens between April 30 and May 14, 2026, using the AmeriSpeak^® Teen Omnibus, a nationally representative survey of U.S. teens. It included 1,017 interviews with teens ages 13-17 (margin of error: ± 4.3 percentage points). AmeriSpeak Teen is a probability-based panel of U.S. teens recruited from AmeriSpeak households with parental permission and designed to be representative of the U.S. teen population. The survey included 682 interviews from AmeriSpeak’s teen panel and 335 interviews from a non-probability opt-in panel. A comprehensive listing of all study questions and topline results is available in the survey topline report.